1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an infant walker. More particularly, it is concerned with an infant walker attached to a central anchor member wherein an infant placed in the walker is restricted to walking in a circular path about the central anchor member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Infant walkers are well known in the art and have been used for many years. They allow infants to begin learning how to walk with the aid of the walker. In addition, infants placed in a walker have much greater mobility than they would otherwise have.
Typically, infant walkers give infants virtually unrestricted mobility. This mobility allows infants to easily and quickly move across significant areas of a room or home. This increased mobility provides for a much increased chance of injury or accident involving the infant.
Accidents involving infants in walkers typically occur when the infant walks over the edge of and falls down a flight of stairs or off an elevated surface such as a deck or porch of a home. In addition, the walkers can topple over when the walker becomes caught on some low lying edge and the infant then can fall and be injured. The freedom of movement provided by the walker to the infant also allows the infant to quickly walk into dangerous situations such as into a hot oven or to an electrical outlet. When an infant is placed in a walker the chance that the child will become injured while using the walker is significant even if the infant is left unattended by a parent or guardian for only a few seconds.
In addition, a child using known walkers often becomes trapped or stuck against furniture, a wall, or other obstacle and quickly becomes frustrated because he cannot move about the room. Once a child becomes stuck, a parent or guardian must move the walker and point the infant in a direction in which the infant is able to freely walk.